Risks faced by first responders, police to fenantyl exposure are overstated, expert says

foxnews.com:

Police and first responders taking calls involving potential exposure to fentanyl have been trained to believe in the grave harm in being exposed to the drug, a fear that research shows may be overstated. "Officers are definitely thinking or feeling something, and it started based on things the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) said that they've since retracted," Brandon del Pozo, an assistant professor of Medicine and Health Services, Policy and Practice at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, told Fox News Digital. "There's still yet to be a toxicologically confirmed case of a police officer being exposed to fentanyl overdose by breathing air or touching it." The comments come as stories of police officers overdosing or being hospitalized after an exposure to fentanyl have spread across the country, most recently in the case of a Hawaii police officer who self-administered a dose of Narcan during an overdose call after becoming ill.

However, del Pozo, who served as the Burlington, Vermont chief of police before starting his academic career, believes it is unlikely such cases were actually the result of an exposure to fentanyl.

Los Angeles police officers have uncovered fentanyl-laced pills while arresting drug dealers for recent overdose deaths. (Fox 11 Los Angeles) "The science shows it's extremely implausible," del Pozo said.